The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered a ghost worker scheme in which a government official enrolled 14 family members on the public payroll to fraudulently collect multiple salaries. ICPC Chairman Musa Aliyu disclosed this on Thursday, August 13, in Abuja during his keynote address at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and National Spokespersons Award, an event organised by Image Merchants Promotions Limited.
Official Enrolled 14 Family Members
Aliyu told attendees that investigators found one official who had registered 14 relatives on the government payroll and was living in a hotel funded by a public office while drawing the associated salaries. "We discovered that one person enrolled 14 members of his family. He lived in a religious hotel, a hotel at the public office, receiving salaries," he said.
In a separate case, another official allegedly put his wife, daughter, son, and additional family members on the payroll and collected a total of 13 salaries. "Another person enrolled his wife, his daughter, his son, and others and was receiving 13 salaries," Aliyu said.
How the Fraud Was Hidden
The ICPC chairman explained that fraudulent entries were carefully concealed within official records. Names and email addresses of phantom workers appeared on payrolls, but the bank account numbers linked to those entries belonged to entirely different people. "When they insert their names, you will see their name in the payroll. You will see their email. But when you check the account number, you will see the name of the person," he said.
Aliyu said the commission spent an entire year investigating approximately 900 suspected ghost workers, whose names were subsequently published in newspapers to challenge them to prove their employment was legitimate.
N24bn Recovered in Ghost Pensions
He warned that the consequences stretched well beyond salary theft, noting that each fraudulent payroll entry could generate ghost pensions, ghost mortgage benefits, ghost housing fund contributions, and ghost health insurance claims. The ICPC chairman said the commission recovered more than N24bn in ghost pension funds during 2024 alone, a figure he cited as evidence of the scale of losses to the public purse.
Aliyu said the commission was shifting focus towards preventing corruption and ensuring proper project execution, rather than relying primarily on prosecutions. "It is better for us to do that than to engage in filing criminal charges. How many charges can we file?" he said.
He called for wider use of data and technology in tackling corruption, arguing that reliable information and effective public communication were central to restoring trust in anti-corruption institutions.
Earlier at the event, Image Merchants Promotions Limited chief executive Yusha'u Shuaib said the lecture was designed to advance transparency and accountability in governance. "We are honoured to host yet another gathering of leaders, professionals, scholars, and communication experts committed to strengthening governance, promoting transparency, and advancing excellence in public communication," Shuaib said.
Previously, Legit.ng reported that the ICPC confirmed that the appointment letter used by Adeniyi Adeyemi Mathew to pose as Director-General of the non-existent Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) was forged and did not originate from the presidency. ICPC chairman Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu made this known at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, exactly 30 days after President Bola Tinubu ordered the commission to investigate the fake agency on Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
